Finding Jade - A Bucky Barnes Story

Chapter 1. Bleeding Daylight

The woman was almost finished.  It had been three days, maybe more, maybe less, since she left her mother and son in the Sanctuary to find help.  The Others had seen her, not near the Sanctuary fortunately, but they had still seen her.  They tracked her into the Badlands.  She knew the ground well, having hidden there as a kid before Ma found her and took her in. 

"Ma," she tried to say through her cracked lips.  "I'm sorry Ma, I died here.  No one's coming."

If she had any moisture left in her eyes she would be crying now but her eyes were dry, red and crusted with the dirt from her hands whenever she rubbed her face.  She tripped and the fall to the ground was agony as she tried to protect the wound on her side, the wound the Others had given her, the wound she was dying from.  She looked at her hand which had been over the wound.  It was bloody meaning the wound had opened again.  The wound the doctor whose name she had already forgotten had closed. 

"Fuck," she gasped. 

Slowly, she placed her hands below her and lifted herself to one knee, then upright, screaming as she did it.  Giving up wasn't an option, not yet, not when Ma and Ben were waiting for her to return to the Sanctuary.  Even though she knew she was dying she wouldn't give up, not until she couldn't get up anymore.  Five steps later she tripped again and this time she stayed down.  She lay there, dying, waiting for the darkness to take her when she felt someone turn her over.  Man, woman, she didn't know but they pulled her jacket open and pulled her shirt up then swore at what they saw.  It was a man's voice and she tried to open her eyes but there was no lubrication left for the eyelids to open.

"Help," she said, except it came out "Heh", if it came out at all.

She felt arms lifting her up and movement as she was carried to a vehicle and laid in the back seat.  They had a car.  How could they have a car when there was no gas?  But she heard the engine start up and even though the man, it was a man she heard, although she had already forgotten the voice, drove carefully each bump made her cry out from the pain in the wound the Others had given her.

"Hold on," said the man, yes, it was a man, "I'll get you to a doctor."

Doctor?  Were there still such things?  There had to be because she had seen one, in the desert when she was dying.  Ma had told her about doctors, healers, angels of mercy, madmen, killers, responsible for death.  It became harder to breathe and she knew this was it, death was in the car, sitting on the top of the back seat, looking down at her, rubbing its hands in anticipation.  Death had found her and it was bleeding daylight away from her and replacing it with the darkness.  She almost welcomed it because the pain would stop.  She had no regrets.  No, that wasn't true, there was a regret.  That she couldn't say goodbye to Ma and Ben.  I'm sorry, she said but there was no sound from her lips as it was all in her mind now.  That's all that was left, her mind and that one regret.  Then the darkness came.

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight
Lovers in a Dangerous Time by Bruce Cockburn

"Jesus, Steve," said the doctor.  "Where the hell did you find her?  She's more dead than alive."

Dr. Bruce Banner looked at the almost dead woman on the gurney.  Steve Rogers had carried her in from his vehicle yelling at Bruce for help.  He stood back as Bruce started checking her out.

"She came out of the Badlands," said Steve.  "I heard her screaming.  She had raised herself from where she fell.  Buddy alerted me.  Can you save her?"

"I'll do my best but she's severely dehydrated, in shock, and the wound...," Banner shook his head.  "It's from a weapon of the Others.  They did this to her.  I don't know how long the poison has been in her system but it looks bad."